Eurosonic Announces First Acts

The joint winners of this year’s European Talent Exchange Programme barely completed the 11 festival shows they earned out of this year’s scheme before the first names for next year’s showcase (Jan. 12-15) were announced.

The 26 acts trying to emulate UK British indie pop band The xx, which has since won the Mercury Music Prize, and Iceland’s FM Belfast are largely from mainland Europe or Ireland.

In 2010 UK dominance of ETEP further increased to the point that five of the top six acts in the list were British. Apart from The xx, Band Of Skulls and Marina & the Diamonds tied for third place with eight shows each, while Charlie Winston and Ellie Goulding were both fifth with seven shows.

The first list also includes artists from Estonia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Moldovia, and Hungary.

Belgium is doing best with three acts confirmed, but so far only about 10 percent of the lineup has been announced.

Since the start of the ETEP programme in 2003, 418 European artists have shared 1,145 shows across 60 European festivals.